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Save a horse, ride these cowboy pictures: Shots of the Grand National Rodeo

So struck were we by the spectacle that is the first weekend of the Grand National Rodeo (read our print coverage of the event here), your Guardian news team lost a couple hundred dollars worth of camera equipment, by a conservative (uneducated in the ways of photography) estimate (your writer's). Luckily, we still brought back photo documentation. They never should have let us stand by the bronc pit.

City slickers be forewarned: rodeo nights'll make you dizzy. Thousands of cowboys hats cruise through the Cow Palace on each of the Grand National's yearly four main evenings of existence. Last weekend two of these took place, but you've still got two more in store for you, should you want them: Fri/21 and Sat/22. You can check out the show ponies in the unfathomably large stables section of the event, take a stadium seat to watch the cattle roping, bronc riding, and barrel racing events, and eventually (they all do) wind up back in line at the concession stand for a cold Coors Light.

How'd we lose the camera lenses? Standing up on the same platform that the cowboys vault from to reach the backs of their designated bucking broncos. You'd do well to stay far from the gaze of these finely-bred, but nonetheless brutally strong hunks of animals. But they sure are fine to look at. So you're welcome for the slideshow.